A major problem in raising a pet is to determine a specific defecation spot or place for the pet and train the pet to defecate in the same.
In the past, pets were mostly toilet trained to defecate on the floor of a bathroom. However, pet toilet devices with different functions have now been released and are available to thus offer convenience in cleaning the same.
In general, a conventional pet toilet device consists of a toilet plate (or toilet bowl) and a net and, if a pet sits on the net and defecates, an owner of the pet should collect feces on the net and separately collect urine gathered in the toilet plate via a thru-hole in the net.
In this case, the feces gathered on the net are relatively easy to collect, whereas the urine gathered in the toilet plate must be often cleaned along with the net after separating the net, thus causing inconvenience. Further, if cleaning is neglected, it causes a sanitary problem such that bad smell remains in a room.
In order to prevent the problems described above, Korean Patent No. 1178799 owned by the present applicant disclosed the invention entitled “Modular Apparatus for Cleaning Pet Toilet Device,” which includes a water input module to supply water to a toilet device and a drainage module to gather the wastewater after cleaning the toilet device, wherein both of these modules can be installed in the form of an assembly, thus being conveniently used without regard to a space.
Moreover, Korean Patent No. 1282198 also owned by the present applicant has achieved advantages in that it can simply detect whether a pet sits on a toilet device by using a transmission sensor and a reception sensor and, simultaneously, different module combination structures are provided to accommodate convenience in using the same.
Among these, in case of Korean Patent No. 1282198, although water input and output functions in a modular manner are offered, this invention has a structure substantially suitable for a condition of directly supplying water and, since a water input module is not easily separated, the water should be directly drawn from the outside and then poured in the water input module in order to supply the water to the water input module, thus entailing inconvenience. Further, the water input module and the drainage module have a large size and cause a difficulty in installing the same in a small or narrow space.
Accordingly, there is currently an increased need for development of a novel and advanced apparatus for cleaning a toilet device with a relatively slim and compact structure in order to achieve convenience in supplying water and, in addition, to prevent a problem of overflowing or unnecessary flow of water to the surroundings.